Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to location area updating using telecommunication signaling protocols, such as, but not limited to, Random Location Area Update (LAU) and/or Random Routing Area Update (RAU).
Description of the Related Art
Applications using technology such as Java Card, for example, can determine, through a mobile equipment—SIM (ME-SIM) interface, a visible set of base stations of a telecommunication network. Through server-side communication, these applications can provide location information on the whereabouts of the mobile equipment. Java Card refers to technology that allows Java applets to run on a SIM card. Java applets may be installed remotely to a SIM card using technology referred to as over-the-air (OTA) provisioning.
One telecommunication signaling protocol that may provide location information is Random Location Area Update (LAU). Within a Circuit Switched (CS) network, a mobile terminal may initiate LAU to refresh a location of the mobile terminal when crossing the border of two location areas. Both active and idle mobile terminals may initiate LAU.
Another telecommunication signaling protocol that may provide location information is Random Routing Area Update (RAU). RAU may be used within a packet switched (PS) network, and RAU operates in a similar manner as LAU. A mobile terminal may initiate RAU to refresh a location of the mobile terminal when crossing the border of two routing areas.
In general, signaling events communicated by the signaling protocols can be used for detecting the position of mobile terminals. Passive localization methods use signaling events without interfering with normal network operation. An example of a passive localization method is the processing of LAU or RAU events. WO 03/041031 A1 presents a solution for passive localization using LAU events.
On the other hand, active localization methods initiate message exchange with mobile terminals to obtain position information. An example of active localization is paging.
Additionally, “Tracking Vehicular Speed Variations by Warping Mobile Phone Signal Strengths” by Chandrasekaran et. al., 2011, IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom), describes a solution to detect random locations by collecting signal strength information.